


Cursed

by MizzAdamz



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Abduction, Angst, Blood and Injury, Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Character Death, Dark fic, Death Eaters, Mind Manipulation, Non-Graphic Violence, Other, Prompt Fic, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:35:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29092128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MizzAdamz/pseuds/MizzAdamz
Summary: Written for a DARK! prompt given in the Hearts and Cauldron's Discord Server."I curse you Severus, I curse you to live..."
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Cursed

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you [NaomiJameston](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaomiJameston/pseuds/NaomiJameston/works?fandom_id=136512) for being my beta for this.
> 
> I hope it gives you the angsty top up you needed.

She had been a colleague; a friend, if he could let himself admit it. But she was nothing now.

The Dark Lord removed a vocal thorn in his side and made Severus watch.

But before one of the beasts that followed his Master’s commands had swallowed her, she had been tortured by another. Tortured by him.

_ § _

He had brought her from her bed at night, taking advantage of the trust she placed in him. He’d walked right into her rooms and plucked her from Morpheus’ sweet embrace to drag her to a cold damp cave where he tied her to a rock to await his Master’s pleasure.

Severus didn’t dare try to offer her comfort, he didn’t lift his silver mask, and he never spoke with his silvered tongue. He knew he was being tested; he knew there were eyes in the shadows even as he himself hid and watched his prey try to free herself from the chains.

When his Master arrived, Severus came forth from the shadows to stand by his Lord’s side and the Dark Lord smiled a venomous smile at his quarry. 

“You’ve done well.” The Dark Lord praised his beast. “Thank you for solving this minor problem for me.”

Severus bowed low, offering respect that had never been earned, giving his Master the obeisance the creature demanded without inspiration. The action though had ceased to disgust Severus, he understood his place in this world and it placed him even lower than this being who would be Lord.

“I wish to make an example of this,” the Dark Lord motioned to the chained witch, “to those who would doubt our commitment to our cause. So, do not destroy her, but loosen her tongue before the gathering.” 

Severus bowed even lower while his Master walked from the cave, and as Severus was steeling his stomach to do as his Master bid while hidden behind the safety of his silver mask and anonymity, The Dark Lord turned in the cave's mouth and called out.

“Oh and Severus, I will remember what you have done for me, my loving servant.”

“My lord, I live to serve.” Severus said. Then he reached up and removed the silver mask, and another one slid into place, a more subtle one made not of metal but something more cold as his occlumency shields covered his mind. 

He then set to the work his Master had demanded of him, aware of the hidden eyes judging him even now. He broke into Charity’s mind and he ripped out her fears and her truths and made her vomit with the trauma he invoked inside her head.

She passed out several times in the hours he worked; once she fell face first into the rock that he chained her to and cut her head open. 

The blood running over her face blocked his contact with her eyes, so he left her unconscious until the bleeding stopped. When he woke her again, she spat at him.

“I curse you, Severus,” she hissed, “I have seen in your mind as you have tried to destroy mine, and I now curse you. I know how you long to die and I know I will not have long left to live, so I use the strength of my magic to curse you.

“I curse you to live, Severus. You will live every day; you will see the sun rise and watch the moon change. You will breathe the fresh air and you will bathe in cool waters. You will live every day there is to live. You will see it all.

“You will live until you love. Then when you finally love, that is when you will die.” Charity’s eyes flashed and a harsh wind blew through the cave, rustling the cloaks of everyone there, including the unseen eyes’ clothing.

Severus snarled and attacked her mind again, and she fell unconscious in a matter of seconds.

There was a mocking clap from several pairs of hands, but no one came forward. The hidden eyes stayed in the shadows but they applauded Severus in his ruthlessness as he woke up the Master’s prey and broke into her mind again. 

_ § _

Now she was dead, in a flash of green and her body was dissolving in the belly of another beast, and Severus could feel her curse lying over the top of his skin like a film, and it struggled to sink into his flesh.

Because what Charity Burbage couldn’t know from the glimpses she saw of his mind, was that a curse to live in hell had already been tied to his soul, and her curse was too weak to overwrite the one he had placed on himself on a Halloween night 16 years prior. 

So with his mask made of the coldest material available, Severus sat at a table and listened to his Master speak while the curse of a dead woman hovered over his skin.


End file.
